


no one will know (but i'll never let go)

by bookworm1805



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Angst, Character Death, M/M, this is honestly the worst thing i could've done, with a cute mavin moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-13
Updated: 2013-07-13
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:01:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookworm1805/pseuds/bookworm1805
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael and Gavin are stuck in a one by one hole. They're not getting out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	no one will know (but i'll never let go)

**Author's Note:**

> based off the Hot Foot X vid, the fandom blew up and I couldn’t help adding my really horrible two cents. also please bear with me on the semantics and mechanics of a landslide, I needed a realistic way for them to be stuck in a collapsing hole that didn’t involve an overhead floating platform catching fire and dropping sand on them

Michael and Gavin are stuck together in a one by one hole in the ground.

They’re not getting out.

It does no good to lament about how they got there, by chance or circumstance or fate, but as it so happens, they were looking for a place to build a house.

They could waste their breath screaming and crying about the landslide, how it swept away their friends and comrades, the only family they’ve had for the past decade.

They could fight and claw in an effort to climb up the walls, but the ground is shifting too quickly to get a grip. It’s stopped, momentarily, forming a barrier around them higher than their heads with walls firm enough to hold for one or two minutes, maybe three. The silt is packed together tightly, but at the slightest provocation the walls will cave in, so they remain in the center, perfectly still.

It’s a temporary solution to an irreversible problem.

Because soon, something will shift.

And the earth will fall down on them, and bury them alive.

They’re huddled together in the middle, bodies bending and curling around each other like vices. Nails bite painfully into skin and cloth as their hearts beat frantically in a syncopated rhythm. Michael’s arms clutch around Gavin’s back, and Gavin grasps at his neck and hair.

The air between them is hot and damp, and Michael roughly breathes in as Gavin breathes out.

Gavin’s body heaves and his ribs dig into Michael’s. It’s proof that he’s alive, that his lungs still work, and Michael takes what little comfort there is from that. “It’s just you and me, Michael,” he says. “Michael.”

It’s the last time he’ll get to say it, so it says it one more time.

“ _Mi-chael.”_

It’s broken up, slurred in that way Gavin’s always said his name, like it’s not a title but an endearment, a prayer, that little lilt in his voice filled with so much wonder and love.

It feels like the walls are closing in, but Michael knows they aren’t, not yet.

He’s always loved the way Gavin says his name.

He wants to shout, wants to sob and bury himself inside Gavin and scream how  _it wasn’t supposed to happen like this_  but the air must be used sparingly, so he holds back.

He breathes evenly, in and out.

“We always said we’d either win together or we’d lose together,” Michael says, trying to choke out a laugh.

It’s not funny, but Gavin smiles anyway. It’s something they’d say to each other as a joke, with an elbow to the ribs and a grin on their lips as they charged into battle against a spider jockey or a creeper. But even though they were fighting, they weren’t in any real danger.

Not like this.

“Team Nice Dynamite?” Gavin offers in a wobbly voice. Michael can tell he’s trying hard to be brave, not calling attention to the silent tears gathering in the corners of his eyes and trickling down his cheeks and putting on a weak smile.

Michael raises a shaking hand from its spot on Gavin’s shoulder blade and places it on his jaw, brushing away a tear. “I will never let go.” His own voice is coarse, dry like the dirt encasing them and breaking like the earth.

Gavin’s grip around him tightens and a tiny sob escapes his lips.

Somewhere above them, they hear the crack of the ground shifting.

Michael doesn’t want to say it, but he does. “We don’t have much time left.”

He can still hear Ray’s screams as he died, buried just a few feet away from them, and the way Ryan and Jack cried out seconds later.

Geoff went quietly. One minute he was talking, and the next he was silent.

He can only assume they’re the only ones left.

Gavin shakes his head quickly, squeezing his eyes shut as more tears fight their way out. His lip is trembling and his hands pull Michael closer. He wrenches his eyes open and his gaze is bright, like the dying embers of a green flame. “No one will know,” he says.

No one will know.

_“Gavin, we could start a life here!”_

No one will know their names, who they were.

_“Yeah we could, we could have a family!”_

No one will know what happened to the mighty Achievement Hunters, a group of warriors lost to time and obscurity.

_“What was our exit strategy, Gavin? We didn’t have one.”_

No one will know what they fought for, how they died.

_“If we’re gonna die, let’s die together.”_

 No one will know how they loved.

_“I don’t want to be separated from you.”_

No one will know the life they had planned together.

_“I think our candle’s run out of wax, Michael.”_

No one will know they died in each other’s arms.

_“This is it.”_

Tears slip from the cracks of Michael’s tightly shut eyes, and trembling fingers sweep them away. “I’ll never forget,” Gavin says back to him.

Michael opens his eyes, and it’s a promise.

No one will know, but they will never forget.

Their mouths press together, lips finding purchase one last time, tongues clashing to have the final word. Michael bumps his nose against Gavin’s stupid, huge, perfect one, and their kisses are salty and bitter. He aches as he licks away the traces of tears from Gavin’s lips and his scalp tingles as Gavin tugs his hair.

It’s violently gentle, the way they crash together here at the end.

They pull back and pant into each other’s mouths, hearing the dirt displace above them. Michael’s cheeks are smeared wet with tears he doesn’t know are his own or Gavin’s.

“Gavin,” he whispers as the ground starts filtering in and lands at their feet.

They clutch at each other’s faces and press their foreheads together. They breathe as one. “Never let go,” Gavin pleads. Michael kisses his nose and his cheeks.

The dirt is at their knees.

“Never let go,” Michael vows.

They look at each other and Michael bites his lip as his body starts to quake, and Gavin kisses away the tears on his face.

The dirt is at their necks.

“I love you, little boy,” Gavin breathes, and then he’s choking on the dirt in the air.

He’s gagging and coughing, and maybe in the dark part of his mind Michael knew he’d go first because Gavin’s always had trouble breathing properly. His eyes are wide with panic and fear, and Michael’s hands tense on his face because he doesn’t want to breathe when Gavin can’t.

He tries to say it back, gets as far as “I love—” before he’s cut off by the ground filtering in his nostrils and he slams his mouth shut.

One last flash of green, desperate and anguished, and he can’t see anymore.

The ground is packed in around them, but their sense of touch remains and their bodies are buried around each other. Michael grips Gavin’s face, feels the stubble on his jaw and trails his fingers around his ear, but he can hardly move.

He’s going, he knows he is. The pockets of emptiness in the ground are filling in, there’s no air left.

In an instant, lips press against his, forcing Michael’s mouth open, and air rushes in. Michael inhales on instinct, and the oxygen affords him a moment of clarity.

He’s  _alive_.

Then the hands on Michael’s face go slack.

The body against his has stopped thrashing, has stopped fighting.

The ribs no longer heave against his with the movement of lungs inhaling and exhaling.

He knows what it means, but his brain is slow to accept it.

Gavin has died to give Michael a few more seconds to live.

The ground pours in faster, fills in all the gaps and leaves no room for movement or struggle.

The lips against his are still and lifeless.

Michael can’t live in a world where his reason for living is dead.

Gavin’s air in his lungs finally runs out.

He opens his mouth and sobs.

Dirt fills his lungs.

_I’m coming for you, Gavin._


End file.
